Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina

(Redirected from Dervo Sejdić)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina
Decided 22 December 2009
Full case name	Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina
Case	27996/06 and 34836/06
Nationality of parties	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Court composition
President Jean-Paul Costa
Judges Christos Rozakis Nicolas Bratza Peer Lorenzen Françoise Tulkens Josep Casadevall Giovanni Bonello Lech Garlicki Khanlar Hajiyev Ljiljana Mijović Egbert Myjer David Thór Björgvinsson George Nicolaou Luis López Guerra Ledi Bianku Ann Power
Advocate General Vincent Berger

Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (27996/06 and 34836/06) was a case (merged from two) decided by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in December 2009, in the first judgment finding a violation of Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights taken in conjunction with Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 thereof, with regard to the arrangements of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina in respect of the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 with regard to the constitutional arrangements on the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The plaintiffs were two citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dervo Sejdić and Jakob Finci, who are of Roma and Jewish ethnicity, respectively.

Facts

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The 1995 Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, created as part of the Dayton Agreement which ended the 1992–1995 Bosnian War, included power-sharing provisions which provided that posts in the tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the House of Peoples (upper house of the national parliament) were reserved for ethnic Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats only.

The applicants, being a Roma and a Jew, contested these provisions. Finci was represented by Clive Baldwin, formerly of Minority Rights Group International now with Human Rights Watch, and by Sheri Rosenberg of Cardozo Law School, with advice and assistance from Minority Rights Group International throughout. Dervo Sejdić was represented by Francisco Javier Leon Diaz, a Barrister and established human rights lawyer.

Proceedings

Applications were submitted in 2006 and communicated to the government in 2008. In 2009, the jurisdiction was relinquished to the Grand Chamber.

In June 2009, a public hearing was held, and in December 2009 the judgment was published.

Trial

The Court found that applicants' ineligibility to stand for election to the House of Peoples violates Article 14 of ECHR (ban of discrimination in the field of Convention rights) taken in conjunction with Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 (free elections), by 14 votes to 3, and that their ineligibility to stand for election to the Presidency violates Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 (general ban of discrimination), by 16 votes to 1.

Judge Mijović (Bosnia and Herzegovina), joined by Judge Hajiyev (Azerbaijan), expressed a partly concurring and partly dissenting opinion, finding no violation in applicants' ineligibility to the House of Peoples.

Judge Bonello (Malta) expressed a dissent concerning both access to the presidency and to the House of Peoples.

Aftermath

In October 2011, the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina set in motion a constitutional reform, including changing the election provisions.

In November 2014, the UK and German foreign ministers, Philip Hammond and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, sent an "open letter" to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which pledged substantive progress towards Bosnia's EU membership if Bosnia's politicians gave a written commitment to implement a package of reforms, including compliance with the Sejdic and Finci ruling of the European Court of Human Rights. However, as of 2023, 14 years after the ECHR judgment, no reforms have been implemented.

References

^ Sweeney 2013, p. 232.
Bosnia: A Move to End Discrimination Human Rights Watch 2 November 2011
UK, Germany Launch Joint Initiative on Bosnia
"Skirting around equality: 14 years after Sejdić and Finci vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina". Coe.int. Minority Rights Group International. 20 September 2023. Retrieved 30 May 2024.

Bibliography

Sweeney, James A. (2013). The European Court of Human Rights in the Post-Cold War Era: Universality in Transition. Routledge. ISBN 9781136159428.

External links

v t e Jews and Judaism in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Topics	The Holocaust History Ottoman Empire Yugoslavia Sarajevo Haggadah Sejdić and Finci constitutional challenge
Groups	Doboj La Benevolencija Sarajevo Sephardi culture
Synagogues	Sarajevo Former: Il Kal Grande Zenica Synagogue
Cemeteries	Old Jewish Cemetery, Sarajevo
Cultural institutions	Arie Livne Jewish Cultural Center
People	Ashkenazi Hungarian-Jewish descent Israeli Perished in the Holocaust Rabbis Sephardi Writers
List of Bosnia and Herzegovina Jews List of synagogues

Categories: